The city of Jemaa el-Fna

Sunset
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30 December 2006. We woke up late today. We almost missed the breakfast. The breakfast is buffet with different types of croissants, orange juice, coffee/tea, cake, cheese, ham, bread, french toast, jams, butter, crepes. Then, we departed on our day travel in Marrakech. While we were walking a guy told us about Touareg Berbers arriving today from the desert to pray in a particular mosque at the north of the city. we asked other people, nobody had any idea, so we thought this is probably a scam. We proceeded towards Jemaa el-Fna. The square is equally incredible and noisy during the day. This time we saw snakes, acrobats, orange juice shops, people shining shoes, spices shops, henna women, monkeys, and other things. Most of these, we saw them from the terrace of the Royal Cafe during the afternoon until evening.

One quarter of Jemaa el-Fna in one picture
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In the morning we proceeded towards the souq. At the beginning of the souq a man started following us and pretended to be our guide. He couldn't speak word of English and pretended that we couldn't understand that we don't need him. While in Fez may be easy to be lost, this is not the case in Marrakech. It is easy to find your way and the GPS is working because there are more open spaces. In one case, he told the shopkeeper that he is our guide (so as to get percentage from whatever we buy because he brought us there - which was a lie of course). It took us some time to get rid of him. All we did is constantly ignoring his suggestions and going elsewhere from where he wanted us to go. Eventually, he left and in peace we saw the spices market (where in the past people were getting ingredients for magic potions), the carpets, the jewellers, the leather, the bag makers, the slippers, the blacksmiths, and the food stalls.

The magic of Jemaa el-Fna

Slippers in the souq
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In Jemaa el-Fna, we met the most extraordinary man until now. He was selling aromatic spices (you burn them on charcoal or the coal for nargile). Gray dress, black hat, tired face and black fingers, he was throwing the dust in the charcoal and aromatic smoke was coming out. He would narrate verses from the Quran and at the background the smokes from the food stalls, the tall minaret (Koutoubia), the drums, the voices from people and monkeys, and the sunset. Just blur your mind a bit and suddenly you are back in time. It was a unique experience! We talked about life, we talked about family, the world looked like a toy in our words and time mattered no more. You can't leave the magic! And what we lived in Morocco and in Jemaa el-Fna was more like magic.

Back in time
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31 December 2006. Last day of the year, last day of our travel to Morocco, the day of the great feast for the Islam. The streets were empty. The day was sunny and we didn't want to go back to UK. We knew what was expecting us because we checked the weather forecast and whether our flight was ok. Marrakech airport was a bit of a nightmare because there are two terminals and we didn't know which terminal to go for check-in and deliver the car rental keys and papers. At the end, we had to go to both terminals. Our flight was fine. The travel from Luton to Durham was tiring mainly because of rain and strong winds. We arrived at home knackered. We changed the year and at 00:30 we were sleeping.